Basics to Building a Better Green Home
Editor’s Note: This post was provided by one of our paid sponsors, Solar Energy International (SEI), a USA non-profit organization whose mission is to help others use renewable energy and environmental building technologies through education. SEI teaches individuals from all walks of life how to design, install and maintain renewable energy systems, and how to design and build efficient, sustainable homes. SEI offers trainings online and in 22 locations around the world.
Homes built today are generally twice as efficient as their 1980s counterparts. Improved window technology, more efficient heating and cooling equipment, better control of air infiltration, and greater use of insulation are helping decrease energy use in today’s homes. But building science—the physics of optimizing building performance and understanding why buildings fail—also plays a pivotal role.
Building science encompasses the study of heat transfer, airflow, and moisture movement through building enclosures; and how those factors affect the building’s performance, durability, comfort, and air quality. It predicts and measures the relationship people have to the controlled environment of buildings. Building science encompasses home design, construction, diagnostics, repair, and operation—all pitching in to make better buildings.
Dealing with Heat Flow
Insulation controls the flow of heat through a building assembly by slowing the conductive heat transfer through the envelope. Wherever floors, walls, ceilings, windows, and doors are exposed to differing inside and outside temperatures, heat conduction takes place.
